Heat and Mass Transfer in an Agitated Contact-Convective Heated Dryer

For the investigation of the drying process of a pharmaceutical fermentation waste and for determining specific heat and mass transfer coefficients an agitated contact-convective heated dryer was constructed. This dryer is also suitable for drying of other granular solids with high moisture content. Hence we investigated the drying of a by-product from bio-ethanol production, as well. The pilot-plant agitated dryer makes possible continuous measurement and data-acquisition. Data-acquisition of heated wall temperature, inlet and outlet air temperatures and humidity, mass reduction of the material makes possible the determination of transfer coefficients by the heat and mass balance of the dryer. The measured heat and mass transfer coefficients serve as proper input parameters for the simulation calculations.